I'll never reach nirvana this way

I think that the consensus, among levitating gurus & co., is that you need to trascend all earthly desires in order to achieve cosmic peace and nirvana. So far I've coped with earthly desires by trying to buy stuff that I coveted as soon as possible - since it's generally nerdy stuff like books and new computer games that's not a big deal - but now I'm in trouble. I've seen a Wacom Cintiq UX21 graphic tablet, I've TOUCHED IT, and SKETCHED ON IT, and I'm in love. It's also very, very expensive.

I went to the Adobe Live expo yesterday to get information about software that I may use for work (my day work, rather than the comic) - and since I was going to wear a badge and didn't want to disgrace my company with shabby looks I made a huge effort and wore a girly shirt and extremely fake pearls. When I got there I discovered that it was a show aimed at creative industry workers, though, who were all hippy-looking people eyeing with some suspicion my pseudo-semi-corporate look. After playing City Life with the social classes that set each other on fire I was vaguely uneasy. Maybe I should have shouted, WAIT! I'M NOT A SUIT! I'M LIKE YOU! I'M LIKE YOUUUUUUU... AAAARGH!

Anyway there was a Wacom stand, and I got to try the Cintiq. Imagine a 21'' monitor at 1600x1200 resolution that you can lie flat and draw on. At the moment I have to zoom in even 6x to get my lines not to look too shaky, so that often when I zoom out again I discovered that I drew, say, the legs of the character twice as large as they should have been, because I couldn't see the whole figure. On this tablet, I wouldn't have this problem at all. I can get a firm line even at 1:1 resolution. It's really like drawing on paper. BOHOOOOO. I DESIRE IT SO MUCH. I've been telling myself that since I spend at least 20 hours a week drawing in Photoshop, it would make perfect sense to spend my savings and then some on this thing, but then I do a reality check and realise that I'm just being crazy.

Nerd points - Current tally 125

Last night, my karate instructor was telling us of a guy who could make people faint just by applying light pressure, or even just brushing, specific points on their necks.
FOR THINKING "OH, LIKE THE VULCAN GRIP!" - 100 POINTS.

This morning, looking at some flowers while I was walking on a path in a nature reserve area on the way to work.
FOR THINKING "WHOA, THOSE ARE THE FLOWERS FROM OBLIVION" - 25 POINTS.

If I had to count all the nerd points that I scored in my life I'd be totalling millions, but I reset the count to last night.

Yesterday afternoon I slept for a couple of hours and woke up in such a daze that I coloured the comic for two hours without saving. THEN PHOTOSHOP ATE IT! This morning I'll have to do all that colouring again, booohooo...

Last night I went to Cargo and I particularly appreciated the video that the band (Pet) played during a song - a video of a race game with a car going the wrong way.



Two or three weeks ago I went to a club where they were looping a long video on a wall with all kinds of shots, from people crossing the street to fashion shows for bishops (AWESOME) - and I wondered how much fun it must be to do that shit.

Busy May

Life is very busy at the moment. Things at work are hectic (with weekend work looming) - on top of that my two dojos (karate & aikido) have scheduled gradings one after the other, in two weeks from now. I'll have to test for karate 2nd kyu on Tuesday 16th and aikido 5th kyu on Wednesday 17th. I'm glad it's not the contrary, because karate gradings are exausting - when it's all over you feel like you cycled up a hill. Anyway I feel absolutely NOT ready for either grading, but since nobody shoots me or scratches my car if I fail, I don't see why I shouldn't try.

The effect on the comic is that I'll have to find a way to fit drawing around 4x a week evening training (I should always train 4x, but I usually slack one or two days a week). This weekend looks good for drawing though, aside from going out on saturday afternoon-evening, I should draw all day on sunday - they forecast rain.